From Oct. 2-4, Rice University parents, siblings, grandparents and other family members joined their Owls for meals, performances, conversations, campus activities and athletics as part of the annual Families Weekend festivities. For families, it offered a glimpse into the communities, relationships and experiences their loved ones have built since arriving on campus.
“Whether you travel just a few miles here in Houston or across the country or in some cases around the world, we’re delighted to have you with us this weekend,” Rice President Reggie DesRoches said during his welcome. “This weekend is a celebration of your students, and it’s also a celebration of you.”
For Jennifer Crowley, who traveled from Nevada with her husband to visit their son Ben, the weekend offered reassurance that he had found a community ready to support him far from home.
Jennifer said Rice’s culture of care was one of the reasons Ben chose the university. That care was evident from the moment the family arrived for move-in at Duncan College, where members of the residential college community helped welcome new students.
Since then, she has watched those relationships grow into a network of friends and mentors who look out for one another. When Ben was recently sick, one of his O-Week advisers brought him medicine. On another occasion, while Crowley was running errands with her son, Ben texted his O-Week group from Costco to ask what he could pick up for them.
“It really feels special,” Jennifer said. “It feels comforting, since we’re not in state, to know that he’s so well supported.”
That sense of belonging was echoed by families throughout the weekend.
Trey and Funmi Rachal traveled from Atlanta to visit their freshman son, Jayden. For them, Families Weekend was an opportunity to experience Rice through their son’s eyes — strolling beneath the oaks, visiting his residential college and meeting some of the people who have become part of his life on campus.
They said they were struck by how quickly Jayden had established a close-knit network on campus.
“As a parent, when you drop your kid off to college, to know that there’s a community that’s going to be supporting your child is so important,” Funmi said.
Ann Morning, who traveled from New York to visit her daughter, was attending her second Families Weekend. When she first visited during her daughter’s freshman year, she was struck by the way students were welcomed into their residential colleges.
Two years later, she returned to see her daughter on the other side of that experience. Now a junior at Jones College, her daughter has become one of the students welcoming younger Owls into the community.
“It’s really neat to see that transition,” Morning said, “how she’s grown from being someone just feeling out the campus to now someone who’s welcoming other people to it.”
For the Liu family visiting from Ohio, Families Weekend was also a chance to see how both their daughter and Rice had changed since their first visit. Their daughter, Fiona, is studying psychology and pursuing a prelaw path.
“Rice has changed quite a bit just in the last two years,” her father said. “It’s exciting to see the development of the university and the growth that it’s experiencing.”
Despite that growth, families said the close-knit community remains central to the Rice experience.
In his welcome, DesRoches emphasized the university’s commitment to expanding opportunities while preserving the personalized education, close faculty relationships and residential college experience that define Rice.
“Students grow the most when they are given both support and room to find their own way,” DesRoches said.
Families Weekend culminated on the gridiron Saturday afternoon. Despite a Rice football loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio, Families Weekend ultimately gave parents and loved ones a chance to see not only what and where their students are studying, but also who they are becoming.